24 hours of Windows Phone: The app gap is killing me

No sooner do I write about my Apple vs. Android angst than Microsoft hooks me up with a new HTC One (M8) with Windows Phone, throwing a new wrinkle into my internal dialogues -- this is my first time using a Microsoft-powered mobile device since running Windows Mobile 6 on my Samsung Blackjack II back in 2009.

No sooner do I write about my Apple vs. Android angst than Microsoft hooks me up with a new HTC One (M8) with Windows Phone, throwing a new wrinkle into my internal dialogues -- this is my first time using a Microsoft-powered mobile device since running Windows Mobile 6 on my Samsung Blackjack II back in 2009.

I'm using the HTC One (M8) as my full-time phone (or close to it) for the next week ahead of a much more comprehensive review. But after only 24 hours with Windows Phone, I can say the following with confidence: The phone is a beautiful piece of highly functional hardware. Windows Phone 8.1 continues to surprise and delight me with its really very pleasant user experience and overall design.

But most of all, I can say for sure that there is no way I'm going back to the HTC One (M8) when this review is finished.

And why not? If you've been following me on Twitter, you may have already guessed: There just ain't any apps. My experience with the phone has largely consisted of "hey, this is really cool! I wonder what Google Hangouts looks like on h---oh, nevermind, I guess it's not available. Welp."

I know that as a twentysomething living in Silicon Valley, my reliance on apps for everyday tasks is amplified compared to the rest of the world: I use a combination of Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar to get around. I check my personal email with the Gmail app. I use Venmo to pay my friends for dinners and cab rides. I use Google Hangouts and Snapchat to talk to my friends during the day. I order groceries with Instacart and buy and read comic books with Amazon's Comixology. I enjoy the schadenfreude of apps like Secret and the nostalgia of apps like Timehop. Heck, I pay for my coffee with the Starbucks app. I store files and backup photos on Dropbox, every single day.

Except for Uber, not a single one of these apps is currently available on the Windows Phone platform.

When I accepted the review phone, I knew it was going to be hard to go without Apple-specific stuff like iMessage, which lets me text my hordes of fellow iPhone-owners from my laptop or phone at my leisure. Blaming Microsoft for Apple keeping a closed standard would be like blaming Taco Bell for not releasing its Doritos taco shells to Chipotle.

But while the bare basics of what I want and need my phone to do are on there -- pretty sweet-looking Office integration that I haven't fully tested yet, texting, email, and the Facebook-Instagram-Twitter social media trinity -- I'm finding myself limited in some very frustrating ways, and only after a day. Your mileage may vary, but I'm guessing that most of the sort that would be interested in Windows Phone in the first place would bang their heads on the same wall.

There are third-party apps that claim to scratch the same itches, with unofficial Gmail clients abounding, but these are generally pretty bad and really help the general feeling that owning a Windows Phone is like slapping a rocket engine onto a merry-go-round: Going nowhere, really fast.

I only highlight this problem specifically because it brings up an important, and often overlooked, element of BYOD. If you're an IT manager running an all-Windows shop, Windows Phone's deep and frankly very nifty hooks into the Microsoft ecosystem may make it a compelling investment for your users. But as far as making it a phone or tablet that your users will actually want to use all the time, every day, as part of their lives? That part is severely, severely lacking.

This is a market share problem. The fewer people who understand how cool Windows Phone actually is, the fewer people buy the phones, meaning the fewer mobile developers even bother taking the time to port their apps over. Until they either sell a lot more phones, or the One Windows initiative comes to fruition with a lot more cross-platform pollination of apps, Windows Phone is doomed to be the best phone platform that nobody will want to use.

Comments

bhss - 00:14 23-08-2014

It's already mentioned, and rightly so, that the app gap of Windows Phone is an age old story that is literally just that, old, sure they'll be the odd ones not there, there's apps on Windows Phone that aren't on iOS, but it's rare now. But it has to be said, if you're going to do a "challenge" and use another platform for a while, at least put some effort in to using it, as this editorial seems as though it was written by someone who's played with a display model for about five minutes in a store, as even the apps apparently not their in some cases are, or have decent alternatives.

Sandeman21 - 17:18 22-08-2014

"There just ain't any apps."

Heavily exaggerated. Your favorite apps are not there. I never used any of them on my iPhone, heck, I barely ever used iMessage why would I? It's a sad messenger.

I prefer ordering my groceries using a different way and service, my bank is on Windows Phone with a wonderful app, my cable company and favorite cab service too.

I can book restaurants and buy tickets for my favourite theater using their official app and manage my business tasks just fine. I can plan my trips with Cortana and book my flights with apps like Skyscanner.

I store my files conveniently to oneDrive and access it from anywhere I want or share them. I even project my PowerPoint presentations, keep shared notes most efficiently and even share my other work related files directly from my Windows Phone. I rarely need to reach for my laptop.

The only cacophony in all this is an iPad and that is about to get sorted very soon as I am using it mainly for mainstream mobile games.

I understand that you are focused on your personal experience but it is not a great thing to generalize.

Tom - 09:16 22-08-2014

6secret is coming for secret and skype is a more than capable enough rival for google hangouts which now includes free group video calling and arguably a greater number of users.

If you're going to use a windows phone you cant go and complain that googles apps aren't available when the company has done nothing but try and strangle the platform to death from the outset by forcing Microsoft to take down its youtube app and refusing to build apps of its own for the platform. If you're really going to experience windows phone you have to invest yourself in the Microsoft ecosystem like you had to invest in the google one for android and the apple one for ios.

That means using skype, SkyDrive, outlook and office. All of which are very capable on windows phone.